A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of food holding cabinets, and more particularly, relates to the field of holding cabinets for pre-processed food products.
B. Related Art
In a bakery, food holding cabinets have been used wherein fresh baked products are held for a period of time and the air in the cabinet is maintained at ambient temperature and humidity. However, these holding cabinets previously employed in bakeries have been found to be undesirable in a fast food restaurant to hold toasted baked goods as (a) fast food restaurants require that the temperature and humidity of the holding cabinet be maintained other than at ambient temperature and humidity, and (2) the product tends to dry out in these food cabinets used in bakeries thereby leading to degradation of the physical characteristics of the product. Therefore, in fast food restaurants, it has been found desirable to provide a holding cabinet for pre-processed food products, namely toasted baked goods, such as toasted hamburger buns, which controls heat and humidity to maintain product appearance, such as product softness, taste, and the desired toasted characteristics, also known in this context as an acceptable caramelized appearance.
In the fast food industry, it is known to batch toast baked goods. Batch toasting is advantageous in the fast food environment as it is less labor intensive and leads to increased productivity. In one known batch toasting process, the baked food product is removed from a plastic bag and toasted, then the toasted food product is reinserted into the plastic bag and then put in a dry convective heat cabinet.
This batch toasting process has been found to be disadvantageous for a number of reasons. First, an intermediate step is required as the baked food product must be removed from and then reinserted into the plastic bag, thereby leading to a consequent increase in labor. In addition, in this prior batch process, the holding cabinet must be continually opened and closed because of the convective circuit. This, in turn, leads to further labor requirements. It has therefore been found desirable to provide a food holding cabinet assembly for toasted baked goods for use in fast food restaurants which does not require utilization of a convection cabinet. It has been further found desirable to provide a food holding cabinet assembly for toasted baked goods for use in a fast food restaurant which is easy to use.
As a further prior example, in order to attempt to maintain the desired physical characteristics of toasted baked products in fast food restaurants, the toasted baked products have been placed in holding steamers or convective ovens. However, these prior steamers and convective ovens have been unable to control humidity. Moreover, since these steamers and ovens typically have relatively large sliding or hinged doors to load the toasted food products thereinto and remove the toasted food products therefrom, heat and humidity escape from the unit. In addition, these prior steamers used in fast food restaurants have limited holding times only, up to approximately 10 minutes, and limited capacities, as one example, up to 16 hamburger buns of a 4″ diameter and 12 hamburger buns of a 5″ diameter. It has therefore been found desirable to provide a food holding cabinet assembly for toasted baked good for use in a fast food restaurant which provides for increased holding times and product capacities.